Real time freedom means being able to step away without your business slowing down—because everything keeps running seamlessly in your absence.
Imagine this…
You’re on holiday.
The laptop’s at home.
The phone’s on silent.
You’re fully present in the moment.
You’re not “just checking” your inbox or catching up on admin.
And best of all, you feel no guilt or pressure to do anything different.
And back home?
Your business is moving forward.
Marketing is going out on schedule.
Clients are supported.
Leads are being nurtured.
That’s not a dream.
It’s the result of systems.
Systems built to free you, not bind you.
🎙 In this episode of Systemize Your Success, I walk you through the exact six systems and strategies I use to take genuine time off without worrying what’s happening behind the scenes.
We cover:
- How to keep marketing consistent—even while you’re offline.
- The comms setup that stops constant pings from stealing your peace.
- Client support that runs smoothly even when you’re offline.
- The planning habit that ensures holidays never clash with goals.
Because true freedom isn’t found in a plane ticket—it’s built into your business long before you pack your bags.
🎧 Listen to the full episode and start creating the space to step away and stay successful.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: Essential Strategies to Achieve Lasting Time Freedom
- Consistent Marketing Systems: Establish a reliable system for marketing activities to ensure that your business continues to engage with clients even when you’re on holiday. For instance, this can include scheduling content in advance or delegating tasks to team members.
- Effective Communication Management: Utilise a communications manager to filter and manage incoming messages across various platforms. This allows you to disconnect from your business while ensuring that urgent matters are escalated appropriately.
- Client Support Systems: Create a comprehensive FAQ and knowledge base for clients to access information independently. Consequently, this reduces the need for direct communication and allows clients to find answers to their questions without your immediate involvement.
- Sales Management Automation: Implement systems that allow for the nurturing of leads and also, the onboarding of new clients without your direct oversight. For example, this can include decision trees and automated processes that guide potential clients through the sales journey.
- Proactive Time Management: Plan your schedule well in advance to avoid stress during holiday periods. Identify times of the year when you want to take time off and ensure that your business activities are aligned with those periods to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
BEST MOMENTS: Insights on Creating Time Freedom
00:07 – 💬 “Do you disconnect entirely from your business so you can focus on your family, so you reconnect with them? Or are you actually worried half the time about what your staff are up to or what your clients are thinking?”
07:54 – 💬 “I let my clients know that I’m going to go on holiday and I’m very open and transparent about it. And I let them know how to contact the team in my absence.”
10:13 – 💬 “I set things up and make sure they feel supported, even when I’m not actually there.”
17:05 – 💬 “It’s all these things in place. It’s having good systems, it’s having a marketing system, it’s having a sales progression system.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 Systemise Marketing for Consistency
04:26 Effective FAQ and Sales Management
06:49 Automating Tasks With Decision Trees
11:29 Balancing Work and Family Timing
13:18 “Balancing Work While on Leave”
17:42 Disconnecting for True Relaxation
Episode Transcript
Dr. Steve Day: Welcome to Systemize Your Success. I\'m Dr. Steve Day, and today I want to talk about holidays. Are you, as a business owner, able to take genuine time off? Do you disconnect entirely from your business so you can focus on your family, so you reconnect with them? Or are you actually worried half the time about what your staff are up to or what your clients are thinking? Or just that it\'s going to be total chaos when you go back? Therefore, you end up checking in on your inboxes and doing those little niggly things. That doesn’t allow you to really just disconnect and enjoy the time you\'ve got.
That is the subject of today\'s episode. I want to talk through the six techniques and systems that I\'ve put in over the years. They allow me to do this to the best I think I can.
And in case you\'re wondering, yes, I am currently on holiday with my family in Manchester. I\'m recording this live on my mobile in my mum\'s office. I\'m only doing this because I want to, because it came to me. I thought this is a great thing to share. Because I was enjoying actually being with my family and doing some stuff.
And today was one of my work days, which I\'ll talk about in a minute. My podcast manager said it\'d be great if you could record some podcasts. So this is what I\'m doing. Okay, so remember to stick around to the end here. All six of these techniques and systems. The last one is the one that\'s probably going to make the biggest difference to you. And do remember to hit subscribe to be kept up to date with cool tips, tricks and systems. These give you more freedom and time to spend with your family and loved ones.
Okay, so let\'s jump in with my six top tips and systems. For being able to take genuine time off with your family. So you can actually enjoy your life and not let your business suffer as a result.
First off, it\'s all about having consistent system for your marketing activities. These shouldn\'t just drop off a cliff whenever you go on holiday. This means that if you are doing something like me, a podcast, you have put into place some simple steps. They let somebody else manage the publishing and then the promotion of that in your absence. Otherwise, your podcast is either going to drop off a cliff when you go away. Or you\'re going to have to plan really well ahead. Have everything scheduled out.
That\'s good in some ways. But there are certain parts of promoting over social media, for example, where they\'re actually doing it live and physically posting on the right day. That is going to make a bigger impact on your audience and your reach. So it\'s better to do it that way with somebody doing for you. However, if you don\'t have anybody, of course you can plan ahead. Use schedulers to do most of that hard work.
At least make sure your routine or your schedule doesn\'t get shifted when you\'re on holiday. Because most of the marketing channels like the consistency that comes with doing something regularly. Whether it\'s weekly or daily or whatever, you\'re using usual cadences. So make sure you\'re planning ahead. You\'ve got a systemized approach to your marketing. Ideally with somebody else to actually manage that for you.
So that when you go away, that can still happen. Just with, for example, me recording a few extra podcasts over the preceding weeks. It means that you\'ve got a bank that they can then dip into and use when I\'m away. Or like now I\'m just recording in the ad hoc podcast while I\'m sat on holiday in my mum\'s office in Manchester.
All right, so the second thing is comms management. This is one of those key areas, I think, that is so essential to everyday life as a business owner. But when you go on holiday, it even makes a bigger, even bigger difference. So having somebody else between you and your inboxes. So whether that\'s your email, your text messages, your WhatsApp, your social media. All of the channels that basically allow people to contact you and bring you their problems or their issues or whatever it is.
Like if you have somebody in between you and them, it means that that person can deal with stuff in your absence. Yes, there may be some stuff that needs to be passed over to you. But that could also be put over to a time when you\'re back. Not just a blanket out the office, some things may need to be escalated. It may be so urgent that actually they really need to get in contact with you.
It\'d be inappropriate or irresponsible for you not to actually get back to them. If that\'s the case in your business, then you\'re basically beholden to actually check your inboxes. Just in case that kind of message comes in. So if you\'ve got somebody between you and your inbox, they can do that for you. They can filter things through. If you\'ve got some strict policies for your communications policies. Check our previous episode about communication policies.
If you want to hear or get a download of that. But having something like that in place means that they can escalate things that you really need to see and deal with the rest. Along with that comes things like this next tip. Having an FAQ, a frequently asked questions for all of your clients, your customers, your potential clients.
So that if and when questions come in that your staff, your comms manager can actually deal with the majority of those questions. They can even action things or take the next steps. Because you\'ve actually started documenting these things in your FAQs or your frequently asked questions. That is absolutely essential, especially if you\'re also doing sales.
So the continuation of that comms management is your sales management. If you have somebody, and it doesn\'t need to be a salesperson per se. I don\'t have a sales team, I just have myself, I do most of the sales calls. But I have somebody that helps me schedule my sales calls. That is the same person that deals with all my inbox management.
So for example, I\'ve got a call booked in tomorrow where I\'m going to jump on a call with someone I\'ve never met before. They came through LinkedIn. Mike\'s comms manager has been discussing things with them. We built out a decision tree to how to nurture people through in a respectful and meaningful way. So they actually feel that they\'re valued and be listened to.
Then that person\'s now booked in a call with me. So I\'m going to jump on a quick call tomorrow with a potential new client. That\'s all happened in the background while I\'ve been on holiday. I also had a sales call earlier this week. We actually onboarded a new client because the sale went through.
Because I\'ve got systems from border new clients. I didn\'t have to then jump in and spend hours on my computer like setting things up for them. We just hand this over. Most of it\'s automated now to be honest. But pretty much hand this over to my ops assistant. She can then just make sure they\'ve been onboarded properly. Make sure everything\'s set up for them.
There\'s a great book on sales called Open With a Close by Matt Elwell. That\'s where I actually got all the ideas for building my SAL nurturing funnel from. I turn that into a system to allow my staff to actually take people through. As I say, a really respectful and value driven sales process.
So actually just nurturing them through and hearing their problems. Actually getting them to the point where they\'re ready to go jump on a call. That can happen entirely without you. Without having to employ a sales team or anything. I don\'t have an abundance of people coming in. Like a whole sales team or anything.
This is just my comms assistant who\'s based in the Philippines. I\'ve just built a simple decision tree to allow them to take people through a journey. It\'s the one that I would take them through if I was doing it myself.
But by documenting it, it\'s allowing somebody else to do that for me. That again is an absolute brilliant thing to get set up before you go on holiday. So you\'re not having to jump on all the time and keep an eye on things.
Like, yes, I\'ve got a sales call book tomorrow. But that\'s a genuine, like qualified lead that I want to actually speak to. I\'m working tomorrow anyway. It\'s part of my schedule to do an afternoon\'s work tomorrow. So just slopping them in when I was actually going to work anyway.
I\'ve not just been jumping in and answering messages and keeping my phone. Worrying about pings coming in. That\'s all been done in the background. Now I\'m doing the highest value thing I can do. Which is actually jump on the phone and see if they are a good fit to work with going forward as a private client or as a coaching client.
The next part, which again follows on from this, is the client support. This is the third or fourth tip or system that needs to be in place. I let my clients know that I\'m going to go on holiday. I\'m very open and transparent about it. I let them know how to contact the team in my absence.
Make sure that we have things like a client knowledge base. So all of the questions in the FAQ as well, accessible by the clients. Our clients can access most of the information they need. They do this by going into that knowledge base and going into the FAQs and searching them.
We\'ve actually now got an AI agent which is going to set up. They can speak to the AI agent. It will then actually answer the questions for them. This is in testing at the moment for us. We\'re going live very shortly. At the moment what happens is they will send a message to my staff, my virtual assistants or my comms assistant.
They then use the AI to answer the question and then sense, check it and send it back. Things are all looking good. So hopefully very soon we\'re going to be switching on for our clients to do that for us. Again, it\'s just allowing our clients to be served in my absence. I don\'t need to be around and answer every single question and I haven\'t done for a long time.
But now with the advent of actually building really solid knowledge base, which is I\'ve done over the past 12 months or so. Also having our FAQs in there and then now with AI is looking even more like I can support my clients even more. Without actually having to be sort of on the beck and call at any particular time. So having things in place and being open and honest about when you\'re going to be available.
I\'ll talk about a second retirement, making myself available at a fair amount of time so people can still contact me. I have coaching clients and private coaching clients and they pay me on a monthly basis. I kind of disappear for six weeks and not. It\'s not actually return any calls or do any kind of coaching. I don\'t think that\'s responsible. That\'s not the way I run my business. But I also want to be able to take time off. So it\'s about being mindful of that.
About yes, I need to be able to take time off for my own well being and my family\'s well being. But I also need to respect my clients as well. So having the systems in place to support them while I\'m away. With my staff being able to monitor and escalate anything that\'s absolutely urgent that I really need to speak to someone about. Then of course there\'s a method, as I mentioned before, that they can actually escalate things to me. They always have my personal contact details.
My staff have my personal contact details so I can always be reached if I ever need to be. But thankfully that is incredibly rare. I actually don\'t remember the last time that happened for any one of my clients. Because I set things up and make sure they feel supported even when I\'m not actually there. I mentioned the knowledge base and the FAQ that was like point number four and five. Those are probably some of the best things I\'ve put time into setting up.
We have an AI Dr.1 as I just mentioned. So all the information put in there can now be accessed by our team and very soon our clients. They can actually do a lot of their own problem solving and it\'s actually linked to. If you\'re a coach or a trainer, we use an app called Circle. That allows us to then actually link all of our course content, every transcript from every course I\'ve ever created. Every webinar I\'ve ever done, every podcast ever recorded.
Our clients can actually access all that through the AI brain, so to speak. So anything I\'ve ever really thought or said is now accessible. I\'ve got an AI that\'s trained on nine years of systemization, optimization and automation knowledge. That our clients tap into, and that is a brilliant way to serve your clients without you being there.
The next and last piece of the puzzle, which is probably number six or seven, I\'ve lost count, is time management. It\'s actually about planning ahead. So few, few key takeaways here. This is why I said, this is the big one I\'m saving for the end. First of all, it\'s so obvious some of this stuff that I kick myself, I didn\'t used to do it. But if you don\'t plan ahead, then you will end up in a situation like I did so many times. When I actually just get to this time when I\'m meant to be on holiday with my family.
I live in Sweden. The kids have a long summer holiday, like nine weeks or something. I guess that\'s that period. I feel really stressed. I\'ve got clients I\'ve just onboarded, I\'ve got, you know, a course I\'ve just done. Or I\'m doing a sales promotion, whatever it was. Suddenly I\'m like, look, how do I manage this? How do I be. How do I serve my family in the way I want to, how do I know, be. Be good for them. But also not actually let my clients down or mess up the sales process or whatever.
Most of this came down to timing. Actually, really thinking ahead and saying, what are the times of the year that I don\'t want to be kicking off a new course cohort? What are the times of the year where I don\'t want to be starting a new project or hiring or onboarding a new team member? Actually think about that way ahead of schedule.
If I do want to have that nine weeks, a lighter workload, and just work not every single day during that period. Then I\'ve got to actually think about, well, actually, if I\'m going to start a cohort for a course or a coaching whatever, I don\'t want someone to start on the first day. So I\'ve got to go back sort of like how many weeks that I want to have to nurture them in before they actually start. So it may be. Actually there\'s a 12 week period of the year where I don\'t want to onboard anyone new. That means I\'ve got to really plan ahead.
So if I\'m doing any marketing or drives for any of my sales then it\'s got actually full. So the actual, you know, the onboarding date for this new cohort will not fall into that 12 week period. Then you\'ve got Christmas as well to deal with. So actually if you really care about your freedom. If you really care about being able to, you know, be there for your family when you need them.
Planning your sales drives and everything into very tight slots throughout the year means you can still drive your sales. I believe have more passion, energy behind each of those sales but without actually interfering with your personal life becoming stressful. But again, it just takes planning.
The second thing is about planning your time when you\'re off. Now I\'m off at the moment for about four and a half weeks. I don\'t feel I really could take that entirely off at the moment, I am still the coach in my business. I am still the person that deals with my clients challenges. And I help them along with support from my team. But I am still the, you know, the face and the head of my business.
That\'s the way I see it going for the next couple of years at least if not beyond. I enjoy my work and I genuinely want to actually continue to help people. I also enjoy the model that I have, which is a subscription based model where people pay me on a monthly basis. That allows me to really get into their business.
To have repeated every single month I\'m connecting with them like multiple times. Whether it\'s on group coaching calls, on one to ones or on ad hoc sessions, whatever it is. I love that model. So I don\'t want to stop that. But that means that I\'m sort of committing to being available to them because they\'re paying me retaining if you like. They\'re paying me a subscription, not even a retainer. They\'re paying me a fee for the time that I\'m supposedly giving them. Whether that\'s in one time coaching or group coaching or support between those times.
So if I just disappeared for four and a half weeks, I don\'t feel that it would be right for me to then charge those people for that time on my way. I have been with coaches myself and paid them. It was a monthly subscription and yet they were off for four weeks over the summer. Charged me and I had no contact with them at all. That actually made me feel uncomfortable. I didn\'t like that about that particular coach.
I wish I\'d known that ahead of time or been really made aware of it. Because I didn\'t feel that was that particularly fair. I would have probably questioned it. That would actually reassess how much the whole cost was over the year. Because, yeah, I\'m actually paying for a 12 month programme. But I was only getting, I think in total it was actually as a month in summer and a month in Christmas, if I remember correctly. So it\'s actually about 10 months I was actually getting. Just the sort of the value proposition that was actually being portrayed to me.
For me, I actually like being able to keep in contact with people. So I had to figure out how to do this. What I do is, I typically say on this four and a half week holiday, I will do a bit of work. Couple of days on the first week and then on the third week or the fourth week. So then I\'ll have either one or two weeks completely off with absolutely nothing to do.
I work a couple, say two or three half days on each of the other weeks. That allows me to still be there for my clients without too long a gap. So I can still support them if any challenges come up or have some regular coaching calls. I can support my group coaching clients as well. But also I can get through and support my team.
I can get through my admin and support my team as well. My team do need support still. Yep. They\'re completely autonomous in so many respects. But actually it\'s still me driving a lot of the business decisions. So what project should they work on next? In some respects, yeah, I could plan ahead and give them stuff. When you do do that, there\'s still going to be stuff that comes up. I still want to be there to support them.
They are not entirely an autonomous group of people. You know, we\'re a very small business. I\'m still very much involved in the leadership and the management of those people. I want to be there. I don\'t want to just leave them for five weeks. And bugger off around the world. I want to actually support them as well at this stage in my business.
So I want to be really mindful of my freedom and my values that are highly important to me. The fact that I can record this podcast from anywhere in the world. I\'ve been doing coaching calls this morning from my laptop again in this office. It means that I don\'t have to be, you know, fix any position. I can literally work for a few hours a week, but genuinely.
Then feel the rest of the time I\'m having the time off with my family. Be able to see my friends that I don\'t see very often. Without it sort of like destroying my business. So it\'s all these things in place. It\'s having good systems, it\'s having a marketing system, it\'s having a sales progression system.
It\'s having your comms assistant who\'s trained up to actually manage your incoming messages. And incoming calls, et cetera, for you. To support your clients through FAQs to your knowledge base. Actually thinking really far ahead with regards to your time management.
Then planning your holiday so you have very fixed agenda of when you\'re available. That people can book in with you or you can schedule stuff with your clients. But it doesn\'t interfere on everything else. That\'s wonderful about being on holiday and really important for me having genuine time off.
So next week, for example, I\'m going camping in the town south of France. I will not be answering any messages from anybody. I will not be turning my phone on for work. My staff will have my emergency number. But I\'ll be so, so surprised if anybody phoned me. Because I don\'t understand, like there\'s nothing for me that could really be that disastrous that needs to phone me.
But they could if they need to, so I know I don\'t have to worry about it. If they ring me, they ring me. But I can\'t believe that would ever happen. Therefore I can truly switch off and have a week camping in the south or middle of France with my family and friends.
Just had a wonderful time. That\'s what it\'s all about, in my opinion. I hope that\'s been helpful to just go through some of the mindset shifts I\'ve had to make over the years. Some of the systems I\'ve had to put in place. Some just practical advice about things you can start thinking about now.
That maybe by next year you can start putting this stuff into place.
If you\'re interested in joining our academy, this is where we coach people through the mindset of actually creating freedom. The systems, the implementation, the hiring of the staff of virtual assistants. The capturing what you do, the creation of those systems through process mapping and automation and use of AI.
If you want to know all more about that, about how we can support you, please head over to join.sys.academy. That\'s J-O-I-N join dot sys S-Y-S dot academy and check out all information about our community and our courses and systems on there.
If you want to have a quick chat with me, if you go to the bottom of the page, you should find the link to actually book a quick call and have a chat about if the Academy and our community is right for you. Thank you so much for your time today.
Please do remember to hit subscribe to learn more about how to create genuine freedom from your business, or with your business, or in your business. Do please share this with your friends and colleagues and anyone who runs a business. That you think would benefit from having more time and freedom to enjoy what they do, what they love to do each day. Thank you so much, and I\'ll see you soon. Bye.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs, and is passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.
For more articles related to achieving real time freedom, you may also like:
Costs and Benefits of Taking Real Time Off as a Business Owner
Mindset Matters: What I Learned about Success and Systems from a Six-Week Sabbatical